October 10, 2020. Thanks to an award from the Unified Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), the Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy Foundation College (SKIA) will sustain continuity of higher education slots to student-grantees who were enrolled during the Second Semester of Academic Year (AY) 2019-2020. 
“We are grateful for the inclusion of student support programs that makes SKIA College within our financial reach,; said unnamed parents who witnessed the distribution of stipends by batch to 328 undergraduate student on October 8, 2020 at the newly renovated Auditorium.
Enrolled students at SKIA College-Islamic Academy co-location campus within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are eligible for scholarship awards. Present during the occasion was SKIA Chairman Emeritus Datu Ahmad Tucao O. Mastura, BARMM Member of Parliament.
Financial assistance for the first semester of AY 2019-2020 was released to private undergraduate schools by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) through the UniFAST Board last May, 2020.
Current grant from UniFAST covers the second semester of that normal Academic Year to pay for tuition, room and board, books or other related college expenses.
Gift aid tends to be need-based: “So our prospects are clear that low-income students would get better at job search and are likely to land in more excitable internships,” according to SKIA Batch 2024. Low-income students, however, worry that delay or reduction in budget allotment for fiscal year 2020 will hold them back attending tertiary education.
With access to Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs) implemented vigorously (and yes, in combination with resources like work-study programs) the recipients will earn degree without paying back college costs. Questions about absorptive capacity of so-called satellite campuses yet demand closer monitoring for fair and equitable application to colleges.
Some academics report: “Not the least reflection of Duterte presidency is the actual course of action to subsidize free college education firmly,” adding trivia that admission test to the top tertiary dream schools can even be tougher than coronavirus rapid tests.
